This my dear Tom which Edith has copied for you is a true story.
it is about six weeks since a friend [3] of Cottles found a sailor thus praying in a cowhouse & held a conversation with him of
which the exact substance is in the ballad.

Now Tom about yourself. This day fortnight I go to London to keep a term. my stay cannot exceed a fortnight, then I
will enquire your time for you at the Admirality, so when you write next let me know exactly what I am to ask. Now it will be just as
well for you to visit us here as if we were in London, & if you can get leave I should think you might spend your Christmas better
at Martin hall than in dock. As your time is so limited at home always, I do not wish you
there till I am returned from London. but the earlier you can meet me after my return the better – only you should contrive to be here
at Xmas. It will not do to keep this house longer than the twelvemonths, but it is so comfortable a place that I should be sorry if you
did not see it. you will like to remember it, even in the nakedness of winter.

I have had a delightful weeks walk with Danvers, but the best
adventure ‘as how we are taken up for spies’, shall be reserved till we meet. it has been a fine fund of merriment for us & you
shall not share it at a distance.

It is not I think worth while to send you my second edition of poems, till it can be accompanied with the second
volume. of which one sheet is already printed. [4] its contents are to be the Vision of the Maid. War Poems, Ballads – two or three
miscellaneous pieces, & my English Eclogues, which I last night finished very much to my own satisfaction. I take my motto to t[MS
torn] volume from Spenser –

You should have been here during the season of currants & raspberries – or to have assisted in squailing down the
walnuts. however there is still a besom or two in the walnut tree which you may exert your ingenuity to dislodge.

Edith is but poorly. my
Mother continues well, & grows fat. – you blundered in your direction to Lloyd he is at Caius College Cambridge, not Oxford. he tells me I can get to him from London for four
shillings & if so I think I shall visit him for a couple of days shortly.

You need not be anxious about your time. peace is more distant than ever, & the war seems likely to outlast you
& I. it will hold as long as the Public Purse holds. heavy taxes are coming [7] – a tenth of all income & for this we have “Rule Britannia” &
an illumination.

Notes

* Address: To/ Mr Thomas Southey./ H.M.S. Royal George/ Spithead/
SingleStamped: [partial] TOLMS: British Library, Add MS 30927. (A)LS; 4p.Unpublished.Dating note: In this letter Southey
states he intends to travel to London in two weeks time. The journey occurred on 13 November 1798, dating this letter to 30
October. BACK

[6] John Bunyan (1628–1688;
DNB), The Holy War (1682), ‘An Advertisement to the Reader’, lines 11–14. BACK

[7] Southey was
correct. In his December 1798 Budget, the Prime Minister William Pitt (1759–1806; DNB) introduced the first income
tax. The highest rate was 10% on incomes over £200 pa. BACK

[8] Southey’s ‘A
Ballad Shewing how an Old Woman Rode Double and Who Rode Before Her’, published in Poems, 2 vols (Bristol, 1799),
II, pp. [143]–160. This poem was sent to Tom Southey on 5 October 1798, Letter 351. BACK